Susceptible to Blood
by IDoWhateverItTakes
Summary: A Jasper and Alice origin story. Not what you would expect. Far from what you would expect, actually. The present-day Jasper and Alice discover the truth to Alice's vampire origins, and it shatters their views of each other, their past, and the only constants they've ever known.


**SUSCEPTIBLE TO BLOOD**

**Begin at the Beginning**

"_Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop."_

"_The vampire [...] formed an attachment to Alice."_

An attachment suggests something much stronger and deeper than just casual affection, something much deeper than run-of-the-mill kindness, something much more lasting than just a quick bite. Something… eternal.

"Anything?" Jasper came up behind me, placing his hands strongly upon my shoulders. I sighed in frustration.

"Nothing." I swiveled his enormous desk chair back and forth slightly with my feet. "I think we must as well settle with what we have. It's more than I thought I'd know, anyways."

Jasper leaned forward over my shoulder and peered at the computer screen. He grunted after a few moments, and I knew that he hadn't found anything useful either.

"There's no reason that volunteers would be listed on the official records," he pointed out. "The doctors and nurses would be listed, yes, but the record isn't going to show anyone who ever worked there."

"We don't even know if he even worked at the hospital," I cried, leaning back against the chair and bringing my hands to my face.

"Or why he was there in the first place," I heard Jasper mumble to himself behind me. I knew he had pored over this question endlessly the past two days since we first listened to James' tape. Even before we learned that I had been in an asylum, Jasper and I had both discussed endlessly who could have turned and left me. Now we at least knew that my creator had been killed by James, fighting to his own death to keep me safe. I felt an immense sense of appreciation for this man, and frustration and my lack of memories. I would never know why this vampire cared for me enough to turn me, a fragile human in an asylum for the mentally ill. Most vampires, even those who follow our family's diet, have little regard for humans, must less compassion to die for them.

"Alice," I was pulled from my thoughts by my husband. "Why don't we make a visit down to Biloxi this weekend? Maybe being in the area will help. There's got to be more information there."

"There won't be much. The asylum was burned down in 1921, the year after I was turned. There are videos online of teenagers visiting the ruins, but I doubt we'll find any evidence of my creator." I knew I was being a pessimist, but these past forty-eight hours had taken my spirit out of me.

"There's nothing to lose either way. Either we go and find something, or we get to see where you used to be. You need this."

Reluctantly, I agreed. As I moved off the chair so Jasper could arrange our flights, I desperately tried to wrack my brain for a picture of my creator, but I knew it was of no use. My memories of him were erased; he would forever be a mystery to me.

**Either it Brings Tears to Their Eyes**

"_Either it brings tears to their eyes, or else -"  
"Or else what?" said Alice, for the Knight had made a sudden pause.  
"Or else it doesn't, you know."_

Stowell, Texas

June, 1920

Devastation was all around me. A few fires still raged throughout the plain, and the bodies of newborns I had trained just weeks ago covered the ground; their purpose served, their lives complete. We had lost much this time around; more than we had before. Usually we could reuse a newborn for at least a few more battles before they were either killed in battle or disposed of.

A shrill shriek tore my eyes from the smoking battlefield.

"Jasper!"

I turned around steadily to see Maria, her eyes full of fury, coming towards me, stopping a few yards back.

"Yes, Maria," I answered stoically. I knew she would be furious; our battle victories were becoming more costly these past few months, and without decisive triumphs more armies were sure to arrive soon.

"What happened out there? I was watching you. Your command on the soldiers is slipping. Do I need to find a new second-in-command? Because I won't hesitate to replace you at a moment's notice!" She had stepped closer, threateningly as she poured her vitriol onto me. I didn't move.

"It's as I've told you, Maria. The human wars have ravaged the land of acceptable men. In a few years there will be a new supply."

"I can't wait a few years!" She screeched, stepping directly in front of me. "Your job is to train what I bring you- no matter what!" She stared at me harshly for a few moments, before her face relaxed and her voice turned smooth. "If there is something that would assist you in your task, Jasper, by all means, tell me."

I had trained newborns under Maria long enough to know that this façade was barely genuine. She would seldom allow me out of her grasp for more than a few hours. I figured today would not be an exception.

"The only thing which would help me would be a few days to myself."

That would never happen. She breathed to control us all, breathed to never let anyone out of her sight unless she ordained it.

"Take it."

I stood in shock. This was almost certainly a trick.

"Three full days, on your own. Afterwards, I except you back and ready to train the newborns. Our next battle must be a success."

She began to walk off. I blinked in confusion for a few moments, but when it became quite clear that she was allowing me to go off on my own, I turned in the opposite direction and bolted.

As I quickly covered ground, I had a sensation that I was running away. This was impossible; Maria would always find me, wherever I was. And I knew that even if I left her, I would only join another army. No, I would stay with Maria until the battle killed me.

_But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.  
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."  
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.  
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."_

Biloxi, Mississippi

The asylum was silent tonight, an unexpected change. Usually screams would torment me throughout the night, although I had long learned to sleep through them. Patsy, the patient who uttered strangled yells on and off, had disappeared, and none of us could learn anything about it from the caretakers.

I shivered underneath the thin towel that barely covered my slight frame. My cell was coated in the night's blue hue. Moonlight flickered in through the small window that was so high up I couldn't see out of it, even if I stood on the foldout bedframe.

"Alice." A familiar voice traveled unevenly into my cell.

"Annabeth," I breathed back. Thankfully my cell was the last of the block, and my only neighbor was the one who was talking to me.

I heard her hands grasping the bars of her cell and I reluctantly pulled the towel around my shoulders and sat up, cringing as my bare feet touched the cold, dusty concrete. I slowly walked to the front of my cell and leaned forward and to the right. Annabeth was a mirror image of me: both our heads craned towards one another, trying to look sideways as best as we could with a brick wall separating our cells.

"I'm freezing," she said, much too loudly for my taste. I covered my own mouth and shook my head at her. She nodded.

"I'm freezing," she whispered.

"Wait until winter. You'll be wishing for this weather during the day."

Annabeth was new to the asylum; she had arrived just two months ago, near the end of April. We had become friends quickly, or rather, I had become her friend quickly. I wasn't so sure about her, and from my three years here, I knew making friends was unwise. People here arrived and disappeared so quickly.

"Have you seen him lately?"

Her words were vague, but I knew exactly whom she was speaking of. My heart pricked and I focused my eyes on my hand holding the bars.

"Yes."

"Anything new? What is he doing now?"

"Running."

"Running?"

I shook my head and sighed.

"That's it. I've seen him running through the woods for the past day. He's covering ground quickly." I left out the part of him attacking a hiker and drinking his blood, and the fact that he was running faster than I'd ever seen a man run before.

"Maybe if he runs long enough he'll come to us." Annabeth's voice was lighthearted, but my life had been downtrodden for too long; my heart has been brought up and then down for too many months; I was finished with it all.

"I doubt it."

She was silent for a few moments.

"Alice, have you ever thought that-"

"Into your cell now!" A jagged scream cut through the night air, searing my heart in fear. Instinctively, I bolted back into my bed, stretching the towel over my body. I knew Annabeth had done the same.

I was curled towards the back of my cell, my eyes staring at the small window. Dirt. That was the only thing I ever saw out the window if I happened to catch a glimpse. I had been in the basement level for the past year. I knew that the basement was where all the patients that would never return to society stayed. I knew it. I never asked, but I knew.

Footsteps sounded down the hallway, and I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed to God that it would all be alright in the end. The footsteps became louder and slower as they reached Annabeth's cell. I swore I could hear her labored breathing. I felt eyes upon me and I knew that a caretaker was outside my cell. Suddenly stillness felt almost impossible, my leg throbbed, and I cursed myself for choosing this position to feign sleep in. Right as I was about to move my hand out from under my body, I heard the sliding of feet turning in their stead, and listened as the steps slowly faded away into the click, then slam of a door. We were alone again.

**Where You Want to Get To**

"_Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"  
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to."  
"I don't much care where –"  
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go."_

"_If you don't know where you are going any road can take you there."_

Grand Chenier, Louisiana

The dull dusty plains of Texas had turned into the swamps of southern Louisiana. A sign I passed quickly read "Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge". I continued running.

I hadn't slowed in hours, and I had no plans to stop for a while. These past few hours were easily the most peaceful in the past half century.

I had no destination in mind. I didn't think about Maria. For the first time in decades, I thought of nothing at all.

"_Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."_

If I was going to kill innocents, I may as well kill people who would rather be dead anyway, and would have no one to mourn them.

At least that's what I told myself as I deftly broke the lock on a dilapidated building reading "Biloxi Home for the Mentally Ill." I had run for two full days, and I hadn't fed since last week. I had been dreading it, trying not to think about what I would have to do, but my thirst had become so overwhelming I would soon lose all inhibitions and attack a random passerby. Better to do it this way.

I walked into the darkened building and quickly located a large cell block. Cell block. This place could have been a prison. All the more reason my feeding would be charitable, a welcome caress. I would feed and then head back to Texas. I could make it in sixteen hours. A shame that my last hours of solitude had to be spent in this way.

I crept past young and old patients, my thirst finally settling upon a frazzled blonde, her hair in disarray, sleeping with her limbs splayed. Yes, she would be my choice for tonight. I leaned towards her cell, smelling her lovely aroma before I would make my kill. My hand reached for the lock.

I heard a sharp gasp and froze. I heard two footsteps a few feet away from me, and instead of scuttling away, as I surely could and should have, my feet remained rooted to their spot on the cold cement. Slowly, for some reason, I turned my head slowly to the right, to look down at a small, young girl with short dark hair and blue eyes that shone in the moonlight. I stared at her for several seconds before she spoke.

"It's you," she breathed.

My brow furrowed as I watched her body freeze, the only movement her eyes which scanned my face.

"You're Jasper," she said after a few moments. I stiffened. There was no way that she could know who I was. My family had died or forgotten me, and all connections I had were miles away in Texas. I stepped back and turned to head back to the terrified BLANK.

"No, wait!" She cried. For reasons inconceivable to me, I turned around slowly and met her eyes. "It'll only make you unhappy."

She had no idea what she was saying, of course, she was simply speaking nonsense. Still, I felt pity for this young girl who had been abandoned by the world, shoved into this forgotten asylum to live out the rest of her days. I turned back around.

"Jasper, please stop!" She had run to the front of her cell; her hands grasping the bars weakly. "You don't want to kill her. I know you don't. It'll only make you more depressed, and Maria will stop letting you go by yourself to hunt. Jasper, please, don't kill my friend. I know you're thirsty, but there's another way to get blood-"

I shot over to her cell and clasped my hand over her mouth, staring down at her in complete confusion and horror. She stared up at me with wide, dark eyes, her warm breath echoing off my chest. I stared back for several moments before I opened my mouth to ask her a question.

"What is your name, young one?"

"Alice," she answered nearly in the same breath.

I continued to stare at her, my black eyes boring into hers.

"Tell no one about this," I said simply, before letting her go and fleeing the building. I thought I heard soft cries of my name behind me as I tore through the woods back the way I came, but I ignored them. It was all an illusion. The girl was clearly insane. My feet led me back to Stowell. I'd feed when I got back.

September 1920

Bayou Vista, Louisiana

I curled my fist as I watched yet another pair of newborns sloppily apply the strategies I had taught them. We were slowly being pushed east, and their incompetence wasn't going to help us win back or even maintain our remnant of territory.

An army was coming in the next few minutes, and we would likely lose over half our men to it. Maria believed we had a slight edge, but I wasn't so sure. If we managed to destroy this army, we would gain a wide swath of land: all of central and southern Louisiana, along with southern Mississippi. The wind changed and I heard the roar of an impending army. I straightened and barked for the soldiers to ready themselves. In a few minutes time we would learn our fate.

45 minutes later

Against all odds, we destroyed all but one newborn from the enemy army. We had more than tripled our territory. Maria was pleased, but she didn't let it slip through. She tasked me and two newborns with scouting out the territory. I nodded and stood in the ready while my comrades headed off to hunt before our trip.

**Curiouser and Curiouser**

"_Have I gone mad?"_

"_I'm afraid so, but let me tell you something, the best people usually are."_

"What is this place?" One of my men asked his comrade. I focused my eyes and saw the dark, stony building that I had visited just a few months ago.

"It's an asylum," I said curtly.

"That'll be perfect for feeding," the other soldier grinned greedily.

"Why don't we try it out?" The other snickered.

"That is not the purpose of this trip," I said harshly, and we passed by it, much to the grief of my underlings. I didn't know why I made us pass by the asylum. As I had observed earlier, it was perfect for hunting. But I remembered the little dark-haired girl, her eyes shining in the blue moonlight. She, for some odd reason, halted my thirst. I trained my eyes ahead and continued running.

**Weak in Mind**

December 22, 1920

Latimer, Mississippi

"Jasper." I inclined my head only slightly at the voice of Maria. I barely grunted a response. I stood in the darkened toolroom of the barn we had occupied for the past two and a half months. This part of headquarters was where I would spend my nights, my hand resting against the wall, my eyes staring suddenly out at the shadowed woods.

"I need you to lead the army someplace."

I turned my head all the way around to stare at her fully. We never had battles during the night, and we hadn't had need for a battle with all our men since we gained this new territory.

She smiled at me.

"I hope you've fed. We're going to turn almost a hundred soldiers tonight."

"What are you talking about?" I asked her.

"We're going to a sanitarium to turn every single inhabitant, then torch the place. It shouldn't take more than an hour. Then you can go back to…. Whatever it is you do in here all night." The last part was spoken with condescension, but I had already focused on the task ahead.

"Why are we transforming the insane? Don't we have enough soldiers? We barely have enough use for them as it is."

She nodded.

"Yes, that is true, but these soldiers are about to reach the six month age, and they're becoming rebellious. These people that we will turn; they're weak in mind, and could have any number of powers."

I shook my head slightly at her words. We never culled newborns at six months, only at twelve, but Maria's creeping paranoia over the past several months could not be abated. What she wanted, she got.

"Very well," I replied. "Where should I lead them?"

"About sixteen miles south in the Southfront woods, about three miles away from our usual feeding grounds, there's an old building, so old, in fact, that no one will raise an eyebrow when we torch it. It's just inside Biloxi."

My eyes widened. Biloxi. I remembered that town. That was where, six months ago, I had slowly crept into an asylum to feed, when I stumbled upon the small dark-haired girl. But Maria couldn't possibly mean that place…

But where else would she mean?

"I don't think we should move forward with this plan, Maria," I said resolutely.

"Oh, don't be weak, Jasper," she responded with a smirk. "You've been becoming so soft lately I've been having thoughts about replacing you. I'll meet you, and the army, there in an hour." She flittered off and I was left alone with the full moon to grapple with my situation. Slowly, I peeled my hand off the wall and rolled up my sleeves. I was thinking irrationally. Turning the people of the asylum would be good for the army, and no one would miss them. Surely this was much better than how we usually created soldiers.

I walked down the rotting wood stairs and walked into the main area of the barn, my presence causing the brawls and jeering of the newborns to cease.

"We have a mission," I said clearly, squinting my eyes as I looked at my men. "Let's move. I want this done by dawn."

**Not Ourselves**

"_I'm afraid I can't explain myself, sir. Because I am not myself, you see?"_

Present day

Biloxi, Missisippi

"I'm not sure what I expected." I let out a nervous laugh as I walked atop the stone ruins of what had once been the Biloxi Home for the Mentally Ill. The place I had spent three-and-a-half years of my life.

I heard Jasper utter a noncommittal grunt as he studied the overturned stones.

"We knew it burned down shortly after you were turned," he said finally.

"Stroke of luck, I guess," I mumbled, forcing a dark smile. The few newspaper clippings we could find about the asylum stated that it had been burned to the ground in an accidental fire just a few days before Christmas. There were no survivors. Some reporters speculated it was intentionally set by an inmate, but no investigation was conducted. The charred ruins of the asylum were simply left in the forest, and looters eventually took away anything of value. Some family members came by to find their loved one's bodies. As far as I knew, I had awoken just after Christmas. I had been so close to being killed in that fire. Fate, it seemed, had something better in mind for me, and I was glad it had.

I climbed over a large piece of plaster and looked around at the ruins, searching for something, anything, that could trigger a memory. Nothing.

"I thought that this place would bring out something," I said aloud, as Jasper turned his head to look up at me. "Just… some sense of familiarity. That I've been here before. But I don't recognize this place at all."

He started to walk over to comfort me when he suddenly stopped in his path and stiffened. Moments later I did as well, instinctively. A vampire was in the area.

"Show yourself!" Jasper called out.

"Not to worry, Major, it's just me." A female voice sounded and seconds later a pale blonde emerged from the trees.

"What do you want?" Jasper asked, stepping in front of me.

"Who are you?" I said, wondering how she happened to pick "major" from all nicknames available. I had been alive much too long to think that a random chance.

The girl continued to walk towards us, undeterred by Jasper's hostile glare and ready stance.

"I think you know who I am, Alice." I raised my eyebrows at her use of my name. Who was she? "Perhaps you need a bit of a refresher."

Suddenly, the green grass and gray stones around me disappeared, along with the brown back of Jasper's jacket. I was plunged into a dark, damp cell, lit with blue moonlight. A girl with harsh white hair and blue eyes stared at me through the bars, and I recognized her instantly.

"Annabeth."

I was thrown back into the present.

"Annabeth," I repeated, now knowing who she was. "You were in the cell next to me in the asylum, you were… my friend." I said, hardly believing the words I was saying. For almost one hundred years I had tried every way possible and impossible to reach into the recesses of my mind for a memory, just one. And now I had remembered this girl, my friend, as simply as putting my shoes on.

I stepped out from behind Jasper and began walking towards her.

"Annabeth, I don't understand, you should be dead. You died in the asylum fire, you had to…"

She shook her head and smiled at me.

"And I could say the same to you, Mary Alice."

I shook my head in disbelief.

"My creator, he turned _you _too?"

Jasper appeared beside me and Annabeth eyed him with mirth in her eyes.

"No, of course not. I was turned by another."

"But how is that possible? There was more than one vampire in the asylum that night?" Nothing she was saying made sense, but I _knew _her; I remembered her.

"It would be much easier if you _remembered," _Annabeth said cryptically. "Alice, I gained a power the night we were turned. The power to erase memories."

She stared at me for a few seconds and then continued.

"Over the years, I've learned my power has a flipside: the ability to restore memories, which I demonstrated just a few moments ago. Allow me to continue."

With those words, I was once again transported away from the present and back into the past.

Biloxi Home for the Mentally Ill

December 23, 12:30am

"Annabeth! Annabeth! Wake up!"

"Alice? Alice, what on earth is it?" The tired voice of my one friend sounded through the concrete separating our cells.

"Annabeth, Jasper and his men are coming to burn down the asylum."

"_What?"_

"They'll be here any minute."

"Well, what do we do?"

"There's nothing we _can _do, Annabeth. I think… I think this is it."

All I heard was her labored breathing for a few moments.

"I guess I never expected to go back to my family anyways."

I closed my eyes and tilted my head downwards, but no tears came. There was nothing here, or outside, for me anyways.

All of a sudden, I heard the slamming of a door and a grunt of a night caretaker. Another grunt, then a yell, and finally a shrill scream from the head caretaker. Her dying breath awakened the place. All around me, I heard cries and moans, which grew louder by the second. Several loud bangs sounded, the horrible wrenching of cell bars being bent. Another scream, then another, until they overlapped each other so horribly that one constant scream echoed in my ears.

"Alice!" I heard Annabeth yell, but I didn't answer back. I looked out and saw men carrying torches, and an orange glare lit up the hallway and the cells across from mine. I saw one man, seemingly impossibly, bend the bars of a cell and drag the inmate out. The foreign man twisted the man onto his side, lifted him up, and sank his teeth into his flesh.

The same scene took place again, in the next cell. Both inmates were thrown onto the ground in a heap before two different men appeared to drag them out of sight.

I heard the grating sound of scraping metal once again, this time it sounded like it was in my own ears.

"Alice, ALICE!" I heard Annabeth scream horribly next to me, but I could only stare at the scene unfolding in front of me, transfixed. More men with torches appeared, which they threw into the now empty cells of fallen inmates. I barely noticed as my own cell door was thrown open.

But when I saw the locks of blond hair my eyes focused. I locked my eyes with his.

"Jasper," I said quietly, accepting my fate. He walked towards me, slowly, looming over me. I realized how slight I was sitting on the stone cold bed with my legs curled under me, the knees not covered by my gown. He stopped a few inches from me. He stared into my eyes for several moments, and the noise behind him dissipated. The orange glow of the asylum turned into one of blue moonlight, illuminating his face. All I could hear was my own heartbeat and the soft inhale and exhale of his breath. He leaned in and tilted his head to the left. I closed my eyes and said a prayer.

Sharp teeth slid into my flesh.

I blinked my eyes and I was back. I turned to Jasper in shock and realization.

"Jasper, it was you. You…"

I noticed Jasper was staring at the ground, his eyes crinkling and widening in confusion until he met my eyes in wonder.

"But how could I…" he began to say, his voice faltering and quieting.

"How could you forget?" The sharp voice of Annabeth cut through our shock, and we both turned our heads in unison to look at her.

"You made us both forget?" I asked, my voice unnaturally high.

She nodded.

"Maria said it would be easier that way."

"Maria?" Jasper asked, but before either of us could ponder what that meant, my heart dropped with dread. Out from the trees stepped Maria, her long dark hair flowing behind her.

"It was for the best," she said, smiling at Jasper.

"Annabeth, you… you're working for Maria?" I asked, incredulous.

"She's been working for me ever since the night she was turned," Maria smirked.

"I still don't understand," Jasper murmured to himself. "How could I leave?"

Maria turned to Annabeth, looking bored.

"You may as well continue to refresh their memories, dear. They still look quite confused."

Annabeth's face sobered.

Fire. That was all I knew. Fire, pure flames. My vision tilted but I felt nothing as Jasper scooped me into his arms and carried me out of what had been my prison for the past three-and-a-half years. I was aware of nothing as he carried me through the flaming asylum and out into the fresh air, which did nothing to help the fire that was consuming my very soul.

I was only dimly conscious as Jasper carried me deep into the woods, and cried out in pain when he lay me on the frozen forest floor. He may have caressed my cheek for a moment, but then he was gone, as though he had never been there. I was alone with my pain

I stood, once again, in the small part of the barn that I had claimed, staring into the woods. The air was full of the cries and screams of almost twenty humans changing into vampires in the show arena. There hadn't been as many "suitable" humans as Maria had desired, and, as expected, the newborns showed little restraint in their bloodlust. Twenty was many for one night, but only a fraction of what had been inside the now smoldering asylum.

Another one, a small girl with dark hair, was lying somewhere deep in the forest, perhaps crying out to no one as she felt the flames of venom coursing through her.

I still didn't know why I did it. In the moment, though, I knew I had to save her. In a few days' time I would venture back into the woods to try and tame the creature that I had created. What would I do with her then? Truly, I didn't know. I wouldn't allow her to fight with the army. Never.

**Down the Rabbit Hole**

"_Little Alice fell down the hole, bumped her head and bruised her soul."_

December 25, 1920

Tonight, I would head into the forest to find my newly awakened creation. Almost half of the former asylum inmates were awake and being restrained by older newborns soon to be disposed of. Once again, I stared out into the forest in my nook. I straightened as I heard the smooth footsteps of Maria advancing.

"Jasper."

Her voice was calm, but I could hear the anger underneath.

"Yes, Maria?" I turned to face her.

"How many newborns did you turn two nights ago?"

"Four, maybe five."

"What did you do with those you turned?"

"Brought them back to the barn, Maria, as you commanded."

She rolled her eyes.

"What about the girl, Jasper? The girl you turned. What about her?"

I shrugged. "Brought her back here." I was so numb I couldn't even feel any dread or horror as Maria's face turned harsh.

"Well, Jasper, I heard a different story. An especially loyal newborn told me you brought a young girl into the forest and left her there. Were you planning on keeping her from me?"

Her last statement was less a question and more an exclamation.

"Annabeth," she called suddenly.

The girl I had almost killed six months ago stepped out of the shadows and stared at me with a vacant expression.

"You saved her," she said simply.

"Annabeth here has a special power, I've recently found out. The power to erase memories."

"And?" I asked, wondering why she was bringing up battle strategy now.

"I need your expertise, Jasper, but I can't have half of you. I need all of you if I am going to succeed. Your whole mind, your whole devotion. Annabeth?"

The girl stepped forward and began concentrating intently on my eyes.

Suddenly, the room wavered, as if from heat. My sight fogged, and I blinked several times to clear away the smog.

"Tell me, Jasper, did you turn a girl last night?" I heard Maria's voice clearly through the haze.

"No," I answered. "I turned four newborns last night, all men. Didn't I already tell you?" Why was she bringing up a girl? I never turned females; they weren't good in battle.

"What is the meaning of this, Maria?" I asked sternly.

"Nothing, Jasper. Nothing," she smirked. Remember to come down and help your fellow soldiers restrain the newborns." She turned away with a smile.

I stared after her in confusion. What had just happened?

The only thought in my head was the flames. I couldn't see anything except that. I could hear the sounds of nature, the crackling of frozen leaves as squirrels scurried, the bitter breeze blowing. A pair of footsteps walking towards me, then stopping. For several moments it was silent and I contorted my body and cried out in pain. Everything began to fade. The asylum, my family, Annabeth, that night in June, everything. It was as if my memory was being flushed down a drain and I was in too much pain to care or try to prevent it. Only one image remained: a blond, scarred man with red eyes. I clung to the image of the man as everything else folded into the background of darkness. My mind was completely emptied except for one image which kept shoving its way to the forefront: the man.

Present day

"You made me forget," I heard Jasper saying as I widened my eyes and tried to comprehend what had just been unveiled to me. "You tried to make me forget I ever knew her! You kept me away from her for twenty-eight years!"

He was yelling now, clenching his fists, and I was fully aware.

"Jasper," I said, touching his arm. All of a sudden, it felt as if I was touching him for the first time, pleading with him to calm down for the first time. Everything was new somehow. We thought we began in one place when really we began in another.

I looked up at Annabeth, the only friend I had ever had in my human life.

"Annabeth," I said slowly. "I don't understand. Why?"

Maria spoke for her.

"I found out early of her power. For the first couple of hours after she was awake, all she would talk about was a girl she shared a cell wall with, and how she saw a blond man take her away."

"You made me forget," Jasper seethed through clenched teeth.

"I couldn't have you going weak," Maria answered with a disgusting grin. "Your attention had been so divided I took the opportunity to get it back. We lost the Mississippi territory shortly after. We migrated back to Texas where we stayed until Jasper ran off and happened upon you again." She looked down at me with a glare.

"I still don't understand," I said, my voice sounding high and clear over the ruins of the former asylum. "Annabeth, you didn't just wipe Jasper's memories of me, you took _everything _from me. Why?"

Annabeth looked down uncertainly.

"I… I knew you would go after Jasper. I thought it would be better for you to forget, to live your own new life, free from the asylum, free from your visions, free from war."

"I had told her to kill you," Maria said flatly, staring at me coldly. "But when I heard what she'd done- I always send spies when I send a newborn on a mission- I decided to keep it that way. After all, your memory was blank. You were supposed to be ended by the Volturi or a rogue vampire."

"I'm sorry, Alice," Annabeth whispered, her head tilted downwards.

"Why did you come here?" Jasper asked. "You knew we were in the area."

"I heard you were planning on exploring your roots, and what better way than with Annabeth?"

"You could have done that at anytime," I said, narrowing my eyes. "Why now?"

Maria sighed.

"She's been so useful to me," she ruminated. "But her loyalty has always been questionable. It's time for a replacement." She turned swiftly and grabbed Annabeth by the head, and before I could utter a scream she twisted her neck and threw my old friend to the ground.

"All erased memories are restored once she dies," Maria grinned. "I figured it was easier to talk first."

"You're a monster!" I cried, looking down at my fallen friend.

"I've been called much worse, Alice." She turned to leave. "Funny how fate has a way of bringing people together. You and me, Jasper, you two, and now all three of us. It was a pity it had to turn out this way." She began to walk away, but before she could take a second step, Jasper sprinted up behind her and seamlessly tore her head from her body in one motion.

I didn't even react.

Jasper turned to look at my eyes. I stared back at him. My creator.

**We Must Run As Fast As We Can**

"_My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that."_

She was my Eve; a woman created by my own flesh. I was her creator. Her parents may have brought her into this world, then abandoned her, but it was I who had given her the gift of immortality. My creature…

She closed the space between us and wrapped her arms around my waist.

"Let's go home," she whispered.

**The Great Puzzle**

"_I wonder if I've been changed in the night. Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!"_

My eyes were open before I awoke. I pulled out my arm from underneath my body, expecting it to be numb from the inches of snow that I lay curled up in. My arm was white as the snow around me, yes, but it felt usual. Usual. What was usual?

I sat up, and my body shot like lightning. What on earth? Before I could even look around me, the landscape changed to that of a man. _Jasper, _my body whispered to me. I knew it was his name without even thinking.

Around me, the snow sat in silent layers. Soon I would learn that today was the day after Christmas. Stockingclad children had stepped downstairs and opened their presents only yesterday, and today they were lying snuggled comfortably in their beds, their hearts soft with satisfaction. I stood up and pushed onward, my heart tremulous, my destination clear.

"_How long is forever?" "Sometimes, just one second."_

When the young woman smiled at me, my soul smiled back. It wasn't possible; I didn't know who she was, but somehow, somehow, I was drawn to her like a magnet to its source. Without thinking, I lifted up my hand and placed it in hers.

**AN: A vague idea had been floating around in my mind for years. Maybe since 2013, and I finally decided to put it into words. It didn't turn out like I expected. The idea that I had constantly been thinking about was Jasper being the vampire to turn Alice. When I first came up with the idea in my teens, I think I expected it to be some time-travel thing, with Jasper traveling back to Alice's past, seeing her about to die, and choosing to turn her, only to realize that HE was the mysterious vampire Alice knew little about. The idea of Alice's creator being this unknown yet friendly vampire never sat right with me. I always thought it had a hint of a romantic undertone, and me, as a hopeless "YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE FOR ME" romantic, was not about to let that happen. SO I think that's where my idea came from. When I finally sat down to put this errant thought into words several months ago, I realized time travel would not be the most realistic plotline, even for a story about vampires. So I worked backwards from my goal, and that's how I came up with the storyline. I understand if it's a little hard to believe, or confusing, or has some plot holes. Believe me, I can see them. I just wanted to get this idea out of my head so I could be free. This is what I ended up with.**


End file.
